German state replaces Microsoft Exchange and Outlook with open-source email
Digital sovereignty isn't a phrase you often hear in the US, but it's a big deal in Europe. Here's why.
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Kudos to Germany for pulling it off. Was also happy to see them mention
Last year [...] the government began rolling out LibreOffice as the default office suite to replace Microsoft Office.
It's one German state. Nevertheless, better than none. Sadly, for instance, Munich moved away from Linux to Microsoft in 2017 (end of project limux). Did I mention Microsoft has a location there?
Earlier switches were primarily about cost-savings, so Microsoft would just swoop in with discounts and backroom deal$, or offer discounts to anyone considering copy-catting, isolating the early-adopters.
This case is not about cost but data sovereignty, and it's also a smaller switch (keeping the Windows OS), so we can have hopes for better success.
Monopoly always wins.
Did you know horses were the only way to move around before cars?
Did you know the US airline industry, and AT&T phone system were a monopoly situation?
Do you remember when Dropbox, Docker were the only product that filled their niche spot?
So, no, monopoly does not always win.
Of course I remember. There is no too big to fail, too.
But that does not mean it's not getting replaced by another one. That's also a pattern. Or maybe the meta game changes, someone else has money and invests and holds a lot of smaller players. Still.
For docker it would be Kubernetes and that's Google.
Well, we have like 3 decades at most of this kind of tech, and really only a couple of generations modern capitalism, so it's a bit tough to say "always" about anything. It would be more accurate, historically, to say that the monarchy always wins - but especially in that case - past performance does not guarantee future returns.
That's fair - let's say since industrialization. But you're right, it's few people whatever the current implementation is (monarchy, oligarchy..)
Hopefully with the political climate governments will be more resilient and care about digital sovereignty
As much as I would love that, will never happen.
Either way we've got to try, there is a slow shift happening in that direction, and the more that shift the easier it becomes
